地盘之争：两狗之间的战争_大学英语阅读

地盘之争：两狗之间的战争

That night we decided to have a family conference about Heidi. We went back into a little of her history. We realized that she was fine until Baron appeared on the scene. Then we all recognized how much time we spent with the “Charmer.” We would talk about Heidi, pat her a little, tell her how much we loved her, but hadn’t we spent most of our time with Baron? We all admitted to this —it just hit us—and then and there we vowed that this would stop. We talked about the fact that our love had to be demonstrated. We had to let Heidi know how much we loved her in a way she could understand.

Starting that night, the children, David and Barbie, got down on the floor to put their arms around this little uncomplaining member of the family. And from that time on all homework was done on the floor. One always had his or her arm around Heidi. During the day, if I was home Heidi would be in my lap[15]. Patted and loved. This she could understand. Gene, when he was there, gave her the same attention and love. When the children came home from school, immediately after opening the door each one would call for Heidi.

I don’t know how long we did this, but this I do know: We never stopped until one day we found our little dog running around the house and asking to go outside by herself. And, yes, she gained all of her hair back and during the day often ran with a fine pack of dogs around the neighborhood. Baron still thought he was master, but we knew differently. And so did Heidi.